


Resistance To Interrogation

by vulcanhighblood



Series: Suspicious Minds [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Gen, Interrogation, Needles, References to Drugs, Torture, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:07:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24017191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulcanhighblood/pseuds/vulcanhighblood
Summary: Colonel Haley will do whatever it takes to keep her country safe. If that means using torture to force her agents to reveal Supergirl's secret identity, so be it.(Set during S4 Ep10 "Suspicious Minds". What exactly happened during Brainy's interrogation?)
Series: Suspicious Minds [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1734034
Comments: 9
Kudos: 23





	Resistance To Interrogation

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, this is a pretty dark oneshot. In case anyone didn't read the tags, it does involve a somewhat detailed description of torture, and could be upsetting for people who are afraid of needles or sensitive to stories about being drugged. Take care of yourself, and give this one a pass if you need to.

He should have expected this. He had expected it, in a way, but what Querl had not expected was for Colonel Haley to be so… _ruthless,_ he supposed that was the best way to put it. One minute he had been trying to arrange his schedule to meet with Nia. He thought now was an excellent time to encourage the young woman to give Supergirl more substantial backup, and he felt certain now was the time to being training her to use her own Naltorian abilities. It may not be a comfortable experience, at first, but Querl was _certain_ that Supergirl would need all the help she could get, _and soon._ No one else seemed to be taking things quite seriously enough, in his opinion - perhaps because they were not as familiar with the way these kinds of social movements worked out. Or perhaps they were more optimistic about human nature. Querl had no such hindrance, he was a realist and always would be. 

It was the same reason why Querl had staked out a space online for himself, for all of them, as American Alien. They needed to rally others to champion their cause, to acknowledge injustice, or they would all _lose_ before they had even fully recognized the need to fight. That was why he was so insistent that Supergirl had a strong support network right now - he could see the writing on the wall, so to speak, and he was _not_ willing to see this world descend into violent xenophobia. He had enough experience with xenophobic people from his own time, he had no interest in watching it destroy lives in this time, too. 

Speaking of xenophobia, he did not appreciate the way Colonel Haley watched him as he ended the call with Nia, putting away the primitive communication device and turning to fully face the DEO’s new overseer. “Yes, Colonel Haley?”

“I need to speak to you about Supergirl,” she said, her face retaining a mostly neutral, vaguely displeased expression as she addressed him. “Follow me.”

Ah, so it was time. As he followed Colonel Haley to the interrogation rooms, he carefully bundled up all knowledge that tied Kara’s identity to Supergirl, ruthlessly dividing the two into separate identities in his mind. It took rather a long time, and involved taking everything he’d learned about her as a child, all of his historical knowledge, and everything he’d seen in this time. Even if he hadn’t known about Kara’s identity, the fact remained that he had access to facial recognition software, and his own internal systems could have clocked her instantaneously. He had to ruthlessly shut that down too, forcibly rewriting the code in his mind to ensure that no matter what, his mind would be categorically unable to accept the idea that Kara Danvers was Supergirl. He’d already laid most of the groundwork immediately following Alex’s ‘debrief’. It was his own form of RTI training - far less time-consuming, but also probably more invasive than what most people would require. This way, though, it would be absolutely impossible for him to know the identity of Supergirl, and thus he would be unable to betray her confidence. He owed her and Alex that much, at least. After accessing the necessary information, he ruthlessly cut them off from the rest of his mind, only after setting a delayed timer to allow them to be accessed again in two hours, reverting his systems to normal operation. Most of Haley’s interrogations thus far had lasted for approximately thirty minutes, but he felt it was better to err on the side of caution. 

Tentatively, Querl probed his mind. He knew that Colonel Haley was taking him in to ask him about Supergirl’s identity, but he needed to be certain that he didn’t know anything _before_ she started asking questions. He scoured his mind for clues, anything that might point to Supergirl’s civilian identity. Fortunately, he was unable to unearth a single hint. For a moment, he amused himself by wondering if she perhaps had no alternate identity to discover, imagining that perhaps she spent all her spare time in the fortress of solitude. That was highly unlikely, and Querl was distantly aware that there was a part of his mind that had been completely cut off from the rest of him. He couldn’t sense what was there at all, only by probing at it could he identify a sort of blank, emptiness that he was _certain_ had not been there thirty seconds ago. He supposed that must be where Supergirl’s secret identity lay. He mentally congratulated himself for thoroughly burying all knowledge of her identity to the point that despite his considerable intellect he was unable to make even an _educated guess_ , and followed Colonel Haley into the interrogation room.

“Agent Dox,” Colonel Haley began, indicating for him to take a seat, “I must express my displeasure with your unwillingness to cooperate so far, especially considering the risk I have taken in vouching for you.”

Querl lifted a single eyebrow in query. “I’m afraid I don’t understand to what you are referring,” he answered, though of course he had a few ideas.

“You must know that after Supergirl’s rebellion, quite a few higher-ups were worried about further dissention in the ranks, especially from other aliens,” she said, levelling her dark gaze at him. “I am disappointed that you did not volunteer your assistance in the hunt for Supergirl’s identity.”

“To be perfectly honest, Colonel Haley, I did not feel it was any of my business, and I have been quite occupied with my assigned work,” Querl answered carefully, not allowing his disgust to show on his features. It would serve no good to lose his cool now. 

“Why wouldn’t it be your business?” Colonel Haley leaned forward a little, her eyes glittering with the hint of danger. “She is a threat to our operations.”

“I have run the calculations,” Querl replied, quite honestly, “and it is quite statistically unlikely that Supergirl will impede the efficacy of DEO operations. Wasting my time attempting to learn her identity, however, is more statistically likely to result in impaired operations. Hence, I did not volunteer my services.” He leaned forward as well, meeting her gaze with a hard look of his own. “I am a pragmatist, Colonel Haley. It does the organization more good if I am able to do my job, rather than wasting my time on this political tiff between the President and Supergirl. I have no interest in politics. Allow me to do my job, and leave me out of this.” He considered ending it there, but the look that was crossing her features prompted him to add, “Please.”

“I find it very hard to believe that you don’t know Supergirl’s identity,” Colonel Haley said, leaning back in her seat again, her eyes fixed on his face like she was waiting for a reaction.

 _“Hard to believe_ as it may be, I don’t,” Querl replied. It wasn’t even a lie. He didn’t know, wouldn’t know, possibly ever again. He had no idea when that little blank spot at the back of his mind would return to him, if ever. 

“If I ordered you to investigate, would you?” Colonel Haley challenged.

Querl sighed heavily. “As I have already said, it would be a tremendous waste of my time and your resources. _I don’t know._ I don’t know how long it would take for me to find out. She could be _anyone,_ and I am not confident in my ability to learn her civilian identity.”

Eyes narrowed, Colonel Haley didn’t even blink. “I don’t believe you,” she said. 

“It’s the truth,” Querl replied, shrugging his shoulders briefly. 

Sighing, Colonel Haley stood. “Wait here,” she commanded, “I’m not done with you yet.”

Well. That sounded vaguely sinister. Querl nodded, mentally tallying the tasks he still had to perform for his job. This was going to be a colossal waste of time, and he really didn’t have time to spare these days. Also, Nia was still waiting for him to call back and arrange a time and location for their conversation, and he didn’t like to leave her hanging. It felt unprofessional. 

Colonel Haley didn’t take long, fortunately, returning with a slim briefcase that she set on the interrogation table. Flicking up the latch, she opened it to reveal some restraints, a few strips of rubber tubing, four vials of varying sizes and shades, three bottles with pills inside, two small bags filled with powder, another bag with a crystalline substance, three syringes, and at least a dozen needles. Interesting.

Querl nodded to the case. “Benzodiazepines? Barbiturates? Amphetamines?” As he examined the vials more closely, he found himself reacting with real surprise. “You even have an extract of Thanagarian Florpelveria, very rare, how did you get that?” 

Colonel Haley didn’t answer, instead withdrawing the restraints and glancing at Querl, an icy look in her eye. “Jacket off, and put your wrists on the arms of your chair,” was all she said.

“Since you’ve neglected to ask, I must inform you that I have quite high resistance to most psychoactive substances,” Querl told her as he removed his jacket, laying it over the back of his chair before assuming the position she had requested. He wondered, somewhat absently, whether Colonel Haley had gone to this extreme in all her interviews. He hadn’t taken the time to thoroughly read up on the laws regarding the administration of contraband substances during interrogations, but he had a firm suspicion that it was frowned upon in most circles. “There is a very thin line between drug efficacy and reaching blood toxicity in my particular case - so do be careful. I know Director Danvers is a doctor, but if you yourself are not well versed in treating overdoses, you might wish to have a medical team on standby.”

Colonel Haley said nothing, simply shooting him a disgusted look as she took the first restraint and wrapped it around his wrist, affixing it to the chair. Odd, that she hadn’t gone with the handcuffs, though he supposed perhaps she was trying to avoid obvious marks. The cuffs would definitely leave an impression if he tugged against them. The velcro seemed far less likely to leave any evidence. So perhaps she was hoping to keep this quiet, after all. On the one hand, Querl supposed he could make a fuss. But what good would it do? He had nothing to hide, after all, he genuinely didn’t know Supergirl’s identity, and he was fairly confident that Colonel Haley wouldn’t kill him, if for no other reason than it would be very annoying to try and find another technician in the middle of this crisis. 

“I’m not going to use anything that could damage your mind,” she said, still a bit too calm about discussing the myriad of illegal substances in her little black case. “After all, I need your memory intact and your technical skills, as you’ve reminded me, are essential to our operations.”

Querl nodded slowly, quite relieved not to be facing the florpelveria extract, or any of the other mind-altering drugs Colonel Haley had in stock. “I see. What _will_ you be using, then?”

The corner of Colonel Haley’s mouth twitched as she tightened the second restraint, moving back to her side of the interrogation table and withdrawing one of the vials, the label of which had been facing away from him. “I trust you are familiar with Bismollian Tarantula venom?”

It took more effort that Querl was willing to expend to control the look of surprise that flashed across his features. _Tarantula_ was a bit of a misnomer - whichever alien they had acquired this substance from must have chosen to refer to an Earth arachnid in trying to describe the creature. In reality, the comparison was somewhat like comparing a honeybee to an asian giant hornet. _Kystryyka,_ if that is what Colonel Haley meant by “Bismollian Tarantula”, were heavily armored ten-legged _monstrosities_ which could grow to the size of an average Earth golden retriever. Their bite was widely regarded as the _most painful_ way to die, not only on the planet Bismoll, but in their _entire quadrant of the galaxy._ There were, of course, treatments to reverse the damage done by a kystryyka, but if medical attention was not sought within 12 hours, the prognosis was quite unfavorable. “You have the antivenom?” Querl asked, cautiously.

Colonel Haley nodded once, slowly. “The venom isn’t psychoactive,” she said, almost too casually, rolling the vial in her fingers. “It primarily affects the peripheral nervous system, activating pain receptors. Most people who die do so because of psychological strain of extreme pain, the venom itself is virtually harmless otherwise.” 

“I am aware,” Querl answered, watching the vial roll across her fingers, noting the way his emotions, particularly fear, were beginning to grow unruly in his mind. Internally, he scooped them up and shoved them into one of his boxes. He didn’t have time to be dealing with it at the moment, and emotions weren’t going to help him. “I don’t know anything about Supergirl's identity,” he said softly, lifting his eyes from the vial to meet Colonel Haley’s dispassionate gaze.

“I think you do,” Colonel Haley replied, “I think you know quite a bit, actually.”

“Colonel Haley,” Querl tried to appeal to her sensibility, “If you use that venom, it would be considered _torture._ Cruel and unusual punishment. A human rights violation.”

Not a smile but rather a horrible facsimile of a smile crept across Colonel Haley’s features as she stared back at him, still calmly rolling the vial of venom between her fingers. “Why yes, Agent Dox, you are correct. It is a **_human_ ** _rights_ violation.”

For a moment, Querl could almost feel his heart stutter to a stop. Surely she couldn’t mean it like that. The Alien Amnesty Act was still in effect, contested though it may be. He had submitted all the paperwork to ensure his citizenship, his files were completely above board, he was a _loyal employee of the DEO,_ she couldn’t _do_ this! 

...could she?

“Now, Agent Dox.” Colonel Haley continued, setting the venom down and plucking a syringe from the briefcase, “You have a choice to make. Are you going to cooperate, or do you need convincing?” 

Querl understood, now, why she had used the restraints, as he tugged against them instinctively. “I am a loyal employee!” he protested, “You cannot - I already told you that I don’t know anything!”

Colonel Haley stood now, her voice sharp and angry. “And I told you that _I don’t believe you, Agent Dox.”_ She was practically snarling as she took one of the sterile needles and attached it to the syringe. “Tell me what I want to know.”

“I can’t tell you what I don’t _know,”_ Querl insisted frantically. His emotions were tumbling back out of the boxes and he was mentally scrambling, shoving his fear, resentment, bitterness, and mistrust wherever he could find space, his mind was scrambled, nothing was organized and he couldn’t seem to _stop feeling,_ even though he needed nothing more than to be calm right now _._

With a disappointed look, Colonel Haley carefully inserted the needle into the vial of venom, withdrawing a small amount into the syringe. “I didn’t want to have to do this,” she said, as if she were scolding a child and not about to commit what amounted to a _war crime._

He was shaking now, throwing his weight against the chair. It was bolted to the floor, obviously, but he was well and truly working himself into a proper state of panic at this point, and so he continued to struggle. “Colonel Haley, _please,”_ he begged. “Don’t do this, I really don’t know anything!” He was strong, stronger than the average human, and was beginning to suspect that perhaps these restraints had been favored over the handcuffs due to durability, too. He couldn’t get them to budge, no matter how hard he fought.

“I don’t believe you,” Colonel Haley said, looking vaguely irritated by his thrashing. “Convince me,” she intoned, carefully prepping the syringe, ensuring no air bubbles were contained within before turning to face him fully.

“Colonel Haley,” Querl pleaded, “Don’t do this. _Please._ Don’t.”

“Who is Supergirl?” Colonel Haley replied, calmly moving around the table. 

“I don’t _know!”_ Querl shouted. 

“Will you help me find her identity?” Colonel Haley asked, voice cold, syringe in hand.

Querl froze. _Sprock._ “I… won’t.” he said softly. “No.”

“Then it appears you need convincing,” Colonel Haley answered. “Hold still.”

Querl had time to react, but what was the point? There was no escape. He’d made his choice, now he would have to live with the consequence. He sat still as she lifted his sleeve, jabbing the needle into the soft flesh of his upper arm. He could feel the venom as she carefully injected it - it burned a little going in. Then the burn began to spread, shocks like electricity dancing over his shoulder. A moment later, it felt as though his shoulder seized, like the worst muscle cramp he’d ever felt, but it kept getting _worse._ The pain had gone beyond unbearable and was now edging into _incomprehensible._ And it was spreading, the agony slowly trailing down his arm, nearing his elbow, easing across his shoulder, radiating into his chest, his back, his neck…

“Who is Supergirl?”

He didn’t know, he had no answer, he couldn’t reply, his jaw was clenched in an effort to hold back a scream. 

“What is her identity?”

Querl felt dizzy - was he holding his breath? He must be holding his breath, if he exhaled it might come out as a shriek, did he even know _how_ to breathe? The entire right side of his body was nothing but _pain._ He couldn’t sense anything beyond it, did he have a right arm? A right leg? It felt as though he was being dissolved in acid, but even then, the acid would _deaden_ the nerves, eventually, this was like being dissolved in acid but regenerating at an equal rate. It hurt, it hurt, he couldn’t think like this, it was _still going,_ his torso was screaming but his left leg was still okay, he could focus on that leg, try to shut out the rest of his body, but no, he could feel the prickle in his leg, soon he would have nowhere to hide from the agony, he couldn’t remember why this was even happening, time seemed to have lost all meaning, he could remember nothing, think nothing, all that existed was _pain._

And suddenly, there was nothing. Querl breathed normally. Colonel Haley reached under his chin and lifted his head staring down at him, surprise in her eyes. “Agent Dox?” she said, eyebrows furrowing slightly.

He blinked back at her, trying to determine what had happened. It took him longer than it should have - he’d completely cut off access to his biological systems. His autonomic nervous system was still running, but he’d completely separated from it, cordoned off a small part of his mind that could only access his mechanical systems. It meant he no longer felt the pain, but he was also incapable of anything but the basic body functions that kept him alive. Also, running a system diagnostic, he noted that the pain was still affecting his body negatively. Even if he couldn’t sense it, here, his stress response was still spiking. 

“Agent Dox, I have the antivenom,” Colonel Haley said, still holding his head aloft so she could look him in the eye. “But first I need to know Supergirl’s identity.”

 _I don’t know it,_ Querl thought. He couldn’t answer, though. He’d cut off access for a reason, if he went back to his body now, there was no guarantee he’d be able to respond anyway, given the pain he was currently experiencing.

“Listen to me, Agent Dox, I don’t like doing this, but she is a liability. I need to control her. You understand that, don’t you? Help me help you. Tell me what you know, and I will administer the antivenom.”

Querl sincerely wished he could throw her own words back in her face. _I don’t believe you._ If this was what she did to a loyal employee who opposed her, he didn’t want to know to what lengths she would go to control someone she saw as a _threat._ She could keep hurting him, sprock, she could let the venom kill him, if that’s what it took. He was never going to help her learn Supergirl’s true identity. 

Colonel Haley watched him for another minute before dropping his head.

Querl didn’t have any way of controlling his body, so his head lolled against his chest, and all he could see were her boots. About two minutes later, his heart began to experience a concerning arrhythmia, likely due to the stress response the pain was causing. Perhaps Colonel Haley had used too high a dosage - of course, Querl had told her that he was resistant to psychoactive drugs. That didn’t extend to kystryyka venom, though he hadn’t thought to say so, as he’d thought it was obvious that kystryyka venom was not a psychoactive agent - she’d even noted as much herself. One bite’s worth of venom would have been sufficient. Querl hadn’t been able to spy the exact dosage, but he now suspected it was quite a bit more, or perhaps this was a concentrated form of the venom. Either way, he had a feeling that he had far less than twelve hours before his body would begin to suffer a life-threatening response to the venom. 

As he thought it, his technical systems lit up frantically, dozens of error messages flooding his system. Grife, his heart had sprocking _stopped,_ hadn’t it? He didn’t really have a choice, then, he had to brave the pain, Haley might not notice in time.

Oh _sprock_ it hurt, his chest was on fire and it felt _wrong._ The wrongness was probably because the muscular organ was no longer beating, but the pain was definitely from the venom. Without blood flow, it wouldn’t spread any further, but it had already gone far enough to cause serious problems. “Heart,” Querl spat through clenched teeth, lifting his head, “stopped.” Black dots invaded his vision, soon pain would be the least of his worries. If he wasn’t resuscitated soon, he _would_ experience brain damage. Even if it was only the biological part of his brain, it was so connected to his technical mind that the two really couldn’t function independently for any length of time. 

That was the last thought he had for some time.

* * *

The first thing he noticed upon waking was that the pain had gone. The second thing he noticed was that he was still restrained.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Agent Dox,” Colonel Haley said. She didn’t sound pleased, but she also didn’t sound displeased. Mostly she sounded tired. 

“I don’t know Supergirl’s identity,” Querl spat, “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“I know,” Colonel Haley said. “You’re free to go, as soon as you can stand.” With that, she removed the restraints, packing them into her black case.

Querl ran a quick system diagnostic. It wasn’t great. He would need time to recover fully. But he was well enough to return to work. He wasn’t sure he could, though. Not for someone like Colonel Haley, who saw no problem with _torture,_ so long as the person wasn’t human. But he didn’t have anywhere else to go. Alex needed him. Supergirl needed him. He’d find a way to keep going. 

Rising quickly, Querl snatched up his jacket, still laid over the back of the chair, and stormed out. He’d barely exited before Alex was there, hurrying to walk beside him as he fled the interrogation room.

“Brainy, hey, are you okay?”

Querl wasn’t sure how to respond, how did one go about explaining something like this? He couldn’t talk here, he had to get away from the room with Colonel Haley still inside.

“I was once interrogated for _eighteen straight days_ on the planet Venegar by Ik’Lofrai’iork, _the emerald bloodeater,”_ he began, his voice strained.

Ik'Lofrai'iork was a true sadist, but even _he_ hadn’t resorted to kystryyka venom. Though that was likely in part because he preferred _hands-on_ torture. It had taken a few days for the Legion to realize he and his away team had been waylaid, several more days for them to find him and his teammates, and a few more days to mount a rescue. He and the three Legionnaires who had been captured with him had sampled quite a few torture methods in those eighteen days, and all four of them had required extensive reconstructive surgery afterwards, several months of recovery, and Querl really should still be going to therapy, like the rest of them were, though he’d managed to bribe his way into a clean bill of mental health. Being a Dox - a Brainiac - who appeared to struggle with mental health was seen by all as a liability, and Querl refused to be seen as such. 

He turned to look at Alex, whose face was lined with concern, and he paused briefly. “And let me tell you, Colonel Haley,” here Querl pointed demonstratively back at the interrogation room, “would give that ten-eyed beast a run for his money.” With that, he resumed walking, still eager to leave this whole experience behind him.

“But you didn’t _tell_ her anything, right?” Alex asked, concerned.

Querl paused at the junction of the hall, realizing that Alex wasn’t done speaking yet. He scratched his neck awkwardly, trying to scrub off some of the sweat that had soaked his hair during the encounter. “Eh, there was nothing to tell,” he said, slowly walking back down the hall towards Alex. “She just kept asking me about Supergirl’s identity.”

“So you used your brain compartmentalizing thing with Kara,” Alex said.

Querl frowned, not quite sure what she meant by that. “What does Kara have to do with anything?” he asked. They were talking about Supergirl’s identity, what did Alex’s sister have to do with that? Perhaps this was some other Earth custom that he’d managed to screw up. 

“Is this permanent?” Alex asked, now sounding concerned. “Or are you going to remember that she’s Supergirl soon?”

Querl stared at her in absolute disbelief. “Kara?” he repeated, almost wondering if he had misheard. “Your sister, with the, the _glasses?”_ he couldn’t suppress the amusement that followed that particular statement. It was absolutely ludicrous, he would have _certainly_ noticed if Kara was Supergirl. “Good one, Director, they don’t even look anything-”

Suddenly, the small blank spot that had remained locked up in his mind resurfaced, all of the information and memories it contained rushing back to him, the code to refuse to recognize Kara and Supergirl’s faces as identical, all of it reverted back to normal and Querl was left feeling slightly dizzy. “Oh.” He frowned. “Yes, my compartmentalization was on a timer.”

“Okay,” Alex nodded, a relieved smile crossing her features before her phone rang. She glanced at it, then answered, “Kara, hey, what’s up?”

Querl pulled his jacket back on while she listened.

“Okay,” Alex hung up, then glanced at Querl. “I have to go,” she began. “Hey, uh, just… maybe sit down,” she suggested, patting him on the shoulder as she left.

Querl squeezed his eyes shut, blinking a few times as he considered the recommendation. He doubted it would do any good, but he really couldn’t think of anything else to do. With a sigh, he headed for the control room. Perhaps he’d be able to locate their missing Navy SEAL. He wasn’t confident, but then, quite a lot had shaken his confidence recently. Still, he had a job to do. Colonel Haley could think what she wanted, but Querl was determined to remain a loyal employee of the DEO. After all, it was how he could best support Supergirl, and he knew now, more than ever, that she was going to need all the help she could get.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, but was I the only one who PANICKED when Colonel Haley said "Your sense of outrage is misplaced, Danvers. They aren't humans"??  
> And then when alex argues "theyre sentient beings/none of what you've done strikes you as wrong?"  
> Haley has the audacity to respond with "Every soldier in every war has had to do things they considered awful. Now this is reality. Sometimes reality is messy and it’s ugly and uncomfortable. And you end up doing things you thought you’d never do."  
> And I'm sorry, but Querl isn't really prone to exaggeration during serious situations, so when he's running around claiming that Haley's interrogation methods are on par with a "ten-eyed beast" called _THE EMERALD BLOODEATER,_ I get suspicious.  
> It also really bothered me that alex wasn't at all concerned?? and I'm very tempted to write a follow-up fic where Alex actually checks in with brainy, because the whole "They're aliens, so therefore I torture them if I want to" conversation with Haley happens AFTER his interrogation, and I feel like if I were Alex I'd at least want to check in and make sure he's okay. He's the only non-human in Alex's debrief that got interrogated by Haley. I'd want to check in and make sure he was okay, but maybe that's just me. It also bothered me that she literally was like "oh you were interrogated for 18 days and this was equivalent, huh? so did you tell her anything" like, um. Gurl. That is so insensitive. I felt so bad for Brainy, he deserved better.  
> ANYWAY. I really needed to write this because all of those clues really pointed to Colonel Haley abusing her power over Agent Dox and his status as an Alien and of course Querl still doesn't quite feel like he's part of the team at this point, and he's never really one to elevate his own needs over the needs of others, so it's quite likely that even if he was tortured he'd put it aside as less important than other concerns.  
> So I just needed to write this "what if?"  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
